Evaporators for refrigerators, including freezers, comprise a tubular member for the circulation of refrigerant and an extended heat transfer heat exchange surface for providing the desired heat exchange between the refrigerant and the air circulated over the evaporator.
In many modern refrigerators the evaporator is housed in a chamber separate from the refrigerator storage area and the refrigerator compressor is normally disposed at the bottom of the refrigerator underneath the food storage cabinet. Since the condenser is mounted external of the food storage area it is necessary to pass the refrigerant tubing from the outside to the inside of the refrigerator wherein the evaporator is housed.
The refrigerant tubing is threaded through juxtaposed openings in the refrigerator inner liner and the outer cabinet face. Since the cavity formed by the inner and outer walls contains insulation material it is necessary to isolate the tubing from the insulating material and to prevent moisture from penetrating the insulation. In the past rubber plugs or grommets have been inserted through the openings in the cabinet walls and material such as fiberglass insulation is stuffed circumferentially about the refrigerant tubing. It has been more recently known to use a transition sleeve formed of two parts inserted from both sides of the walls and then fastened in some suitable fashion such as by screwing together. Although this latter mentioned sleeve allowed for better sealing characteristics over the first mentioned method, it still was relatively more expensive to fabricate and required a plurality of assembly steps.